The present invention relates to a mobile rack system having a plurality of wheeled mobile storage racks adapted to run along rails installed on a floor of limited storage space such as of a store and the like.
It is not good, from a view point of efficient use of a limited space of a room, to fixedly situate a number of racks accommodating books and other goods on the floor of the rooms with spaces left between the adjacent racks.
Thus, for making an efficient use of a limited space, so-called mobile rack system is getting popular, which employs a number of wheeled power driven or manually actuated mobile racks adapted to run along rails installed on the floor of the room, so as to preserve a space for access only between specific positions of racks. Most of the conventional manually actuated mobile racks are provided at their sides with members by means of which the human power is exerted to push and move the rack.
Also, some of the conventional manually actuated mobile racks incorporate a rotary handle provided at one side of the rack and operatively connected, through a chain or the like transmission mechanism, to a driving axle of driving wheels. The arrangement is such that a man standing by the rack rotates the handle to drive the driving wheels so that the wheels are driven to roll along the rails to move the rack to the desired position. For informations, this type of mobile rack system is disclosed in the specification of U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,309.
Although these manually actuated mobile rack systems are advantageous in that they are simple in construction and are costless as compared with power driven type mobile racks in which each rack carries an electric motor or the like power source, they are not suitable for heavy-load racks accommodating a large weight of contents, because the man standing by the rack can no more move the rack in such a case, by simply pushing the rack nor by rotating the handle.
At the same time, it has been pointed out that, in the conventional rack system, the racks are tend to move unintentionally, especially when the rails are not horizontal, to cause a collision of the racks and, accordingly, a collapse of the goods mounted on the rack. In the worst case, the operator who is working in the passage of the racks for loading and unloading the racks may be accidentally injured by the racks.
In addition, in the conventional manually operated mobile rack system, each of the racks is provided with its own driving mechanism, which is quite uneconomical from viewpoints of manufacture and space utilization.
Under these circumstances, the present invention is aiming at overcoming above described problems of the prior art by providing an improved mobile rack system.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an improved mobile rack system in which the racks can be easily moved manually, even when they are loaded with heavy loads.
It is another object of the invention to provide a manually actuated mobile rack system in which the unintentional movement of the racks, which may cause a collision of racks or collapse of goods, is fairly avoided.
It is still another object of the invention to provide a mobile rack system in which a plurality of racks are moved by a single driving means, thereby to economize the space and to reduce the cost of manufacture.
To these ends, according to the invention, there is provided a mobile rack system having a plurality of rails, and a plurality of mobile racks adapted to run along said rails, each of said wheels having a seat for an operator, pedal means mounted for operation by the operator on the seat, driving wheels adapted to be actuated by said pedal means through a transmission means.
According to another aspect of the invention, the pedal means are associated with suitable braking means which are effective to prevent the racks from moving unintentionally, thereby to avoid the aforementioned accidents. According to still another aspect of the invention, the mobile rack system incorporates a tractor adapted to run along a separate rail to pull the mobile rack.